Roman Ulrich Sexl (19 October 1939 – 10 July 1986) was one of the leading

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

theoretical physicists The following is a partial list of notable theoretical physicists. Arranged by century of birth, then century of death, then year of birth, then year of death, then alphabetically by surname. For explanation of symbols, see Notes at end of this art ...

. He is famous for his textbooks on

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between Spacetime, space and time. In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, Annus Mirabilis papers#Special relativity, "On the Ele ...

Life

His most cited work is "On the gravitational field of a massless particle" together with

Peter C. Aichelburg Peter C. Aichelburg (born 9 November 1941) is an Austrian physicist known for his contributions to general relativity, particularly for his joint work with Roman Sexl on the Aichelburg–Sexl ultraboost of the Schwarzschild vacuum. Life Peter ...

. Since 1972 he was professor for

Cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

and

General Relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, where, from 1969, he was director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics. From 1971 to 1975 he was the director of the Institute for

Space Exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1980 he received the Robert Wichard-Pohl prize. :de:Robert-Wichard-Pohl-Preis Today there is the annual Roman-Ulrich-Sexl-Prize for extraordinary achievements in teaching

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Publications

* ''Relativity'' (1972) * ''Gravitation and Cosmology'' (1975) * ''Relativity, Groups and Particles'' (1975) *

References

External links

* 1939 births 1986 deaths Austrian cosmologists Scientists from Vienna University of Vienna alumni Academic staff of the University of Vienna {{physicist-stub